🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 14 Mar 1995, Connie Cooper wrote:

>    Do not assume that these conceptual students are not worth our time.
>  These are not the people who will go into physics related fields, but may
> have a greater influence on the direction of science than we can see.  People
> who do not see that science is not a mystical study of things that was too
> hard for them to understand, will not support funding and legislation in any
> area.  Since it would seem to them to be applicable to a narrow few nerds and
> egg heads ( do I date myself?) it must not be important.  With the world
> changing as fast as it is, we need to be sure that basic understanding,
> especially of that science called physics, is more common rather than less.
>    A question that you might try asking your students on a test, perhaps as a
> bonus, is what *is* physics?  You might  be surprised at the answer.
>     I now step down from the soap box.
>
> Conniecoop@AOL.com
>
Thank you Connie!

I have required an answer to "What is physics?" for the last three
years.  One page ... no dictionaries ... no quotes from textbooks ...
just their definition .... The first year i did not do the "no
dictionaries" and "no textbooks" restrictions and I got 80 papers with
quotes, footnotes and sources.  With the restriction the answers are
quite interesting.

Bruce Esser
Physics Teacher
Marian High School
Omaha NE
http://marian.physics.edu